Q: Why is number of songs not equal to the number of ready songs + the number of songs to analyze/verify?
Q: What is the meaning of red, green, or black songs?
Q: How can I get the Predixis MusicMagic Mixer to turn more songs green? How can I tell if it's working or what it's doing?
Q: How long should the analysis take?
Q: What gets uploaded to the central server?
Q: In the List Duplicates feature, why does the MusicMagic Mixer fail to list as duplicates two identical songs?
Q: Do I need a different registration key at work and home? How many machines can have the same key?
Q: I lost my registration key - how do I get it back?
Q: I'm behind a firewall - how can I access the MusicMagic server?
Q: Why is number of songs not equal to the number of ready songs + the number of songs to analyze/verify?
A: The total number of songs is the number of songs in your library. The number of ready songs is the number of songs which can be used to create playlists (these songs are always highlighted as green). Ready songs can be divided into two categories:
- [1] Songs which have been fingerprinted and analyzed.
- [2] Songs which have been identified using the artist name and song title.
Songs in the second category still need to be verified (i.e. fingerprinted) in case the name lookup was incorrect. You can see how many songs need to be verified by selecting Help/About.
Q: What is the meaning of red, green, or black songs?
Songs which are not ready also fall into two categories:
- [3] Songs which have not yet been analyzed
- [4] Songs which are unanalyzable
Songs in the first category will appear in red. Songs in the second category will be black. Unanalyzable songs are songs which are either less than 10 seconds long, or which have irregularities in the file format (most often with MP3's).
(Note: many MP3 players can play songs which do not adhere correctly to the MP3 standard - such songs may not be analyzable using the Predixis MusicMagic Mixer.)
The number of songs to process is the total of [2] and [3] - this lets you know how much more work remains for the Predixis MusicMagic Mixer.
Q: How can I get the Predixis MusicMagic Mixer to turn more songs green? How can I tell it's working or what it's doing?
A: The MusicMagic Mixer will automatically begin analyzing songs whenever you add new music. You can tell analysis is going on whenever the word "Analyzing" appears on the status bar. You can start or stop analysis from the Library menu. Whenever analysis is running, you will also see three numbers separated by slashes, e.g.
Analyzing 0 / 100 / 2
The first number indicates how many name lookups need to be done. The second number indicates how many fingerprints need to be generated. The third number indicates how many songs will need to be analyzed on this machine. These numbers all count down to zero, with songs moving generally from left to right. When they are all zero, you are done with analysis, and it will stop automatically.
To see what the analysis is doing, edit the file log.txt in the installation directory. This will show an entry for each fingerprint and analysis performed, along with when it happened, and how long it took.
Q: How long should the analysis take?
A: All answers depend on available CPU and memory, but in general, fingerprinting will take between 5 and 10 seconds per song, and analysis will take approximately 80% of the song's playing time.
(Note: If the central server already has an analysis stored for your songs, you only have to wait for the fingerprinting. Similarly, any analysis performed by your machine will be uploaded to the central server for others to use.)
Q: What gets uploaded to the central server?
A: Only information related to songs is stored on the server for the purpose of verifying analysis data. Specifically, each song may send one or more of:
- Song title
- Artist name (including Composer, Conductor, Lyricist)
- Album name
- Track number
- Genre name
- Song duration
- Song fingerprint
- Song analysis
- Analysis of lyrics
As of version 1.1 of the mixer, this information is stored only with anonymous information so your privacy is ensured.
Q: In the List Duplicates feature, why does the MusicMagic Mixer fail to list as duplicates two identical songs?
Q: In the List Duplicates feature, why does the MusicMagic Mixer list as duplicates two different songs?
A: The Predixis MusicMagic Mixer uses a proprietary fingerprinting technology which is part of MusicMagic. Although it's rare that you will get anything other than the expected answer, there is still a bit of an art to the process of fingerprinting.
For instance, if you have song A and song B which are copies of the same recording, but song B was significantly remastered, these songs might be considered different, as they will have different attributes describing them. If you have song A and song B which are different recordings (perhaps even different artists) of the same song, but they sound quite similar, these may be identified as duplicates. For the MusicMagic Mixer, the key issue is that any songs sharing the same fingerprint must also share the same analysis data.
Another rare possibility is that since the fingerprints only look at the first two minutes of each song, if the songs differ only after the first two minutes, these will always be considered the same. Different language versions of the same song will also generally be considered duplicates, as will remixes with only trivial changes.
Q: Do I need a different registration key at work and home? How many machines can have the same key?
A: One key is valid for yourself and your immediate family - use the same key on as many machines as you like. You may not, however, share the key with others outside your immediate family. Violation of this rule may cause your key to be invalidated.
Q: I lost my registration key - how do I get it back?
A: If you have lost your registration key, we can send it to you. Please send your e-mail address to support@predixis.com, with "Lost Key" as the subject of the message. .
Q: I'm behind a firewall - how can I access the MusicMagic server?
A: Choose File/Customize Options from the menu, and go to the Library Options tab. Select "Use proxy", and enter the name of your proxy server (i.e. proxy.domain.com) and the associated port. Additionally, if your proxy server requires a user name and password, you can enter them here. If you merely need to access the server via port 80, you can use music.predixis.com as a host, and 80 as a port.
If you do not yet have a registration key, you will need to start the Mixer with additional command line arguments to establish the initial connection. You can do this with the -proxy option, setting the host and port as appropriate:
MusicMagicMixer -proxy music.predixis.com 80
If your proxy requires authentication:
MusicMagicMixer -proxy music.predixis.com 80 -auth username password
Note: The only authentication scheme currently supported is basic authentication. If your proxy requires an alternate authentication scheme, you may use a different computer, or contact us about the availability of alternate schemes.
If you are using the Mac version, visit the Mac download page for alternate instructions to configure the proxy.
If your question is not answered here, you can try exploring the site, especially the Getting Started and Manual sections. To contact us directly, send email to support@predixis.biz.
